Virginia’s goal is to put opposing QBs on the ground

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Virginia’s inability to rush the passer has been a major problem for the past two seasons, particularly last year when the Cavaliers lost some winnable games.

In 2024, Virginia finished next-to-last in the ACC in QB sacks with 19, which also ranked a pathetic No. 103 nationally out of 133 teams. Opposing quarterbacks had plenty of time to find their receivers and picked UVA’s secondary apart because of a lack of pressure.

Defensive coordinator John Rudzinski believes those days are over, thanks in part to Virginia’s success in the transfer portal. The Cavaliers are bigger on the defensive front and have some newcomers who can make quarterbacks sweat.

“You would always love to be able to generate a four-man pass rush, and looking at the combination of guys we have and their ability to win one-on-ones, it’s really good,” Rudzinski said after Monday’s practice. “It has been really positive throughout spring ball and now into fall camp to see that guys have that ability.”

Coach Rud said he can’t wait to see how the pass rush develops over the next few weeks of training camp.

Two of the new players who are expected to amp up the pass rush are Fisher Camac, a 6-foot-7, 260-pound defensive end who transferred from UNLV, along with Mitchell Melton, a 6-4, 256-pound edge rusher from Ohio State.

Camac had some eyepopping numbers with the Rebels last season when he posted 7.5 sacks on the season, fourth-most in the Mountain West Conference. Camac’s three sacks and four tackles-for-loss in UNLV’s win over California in a bowl game were the most by any player in a 2024 bowl.

Melton, who played in 13 games for the national-champion Buckeyes, recorded two sacks.

“Mitchell Melton brings a lot of versatility to the front seven,” Rudzinski said. “He can rush the passer. He’s going to have to win one-on-ones against offensive tackles. He’s a really good athlete.”

Defensive ends coach Chris Slade, who knows a little something about rushing the passer (Slade still holds the ACC record for most career sacks), likes what he has seen from the pool of edge rushers.

“Used to be, the first-team guy goes down, the second guy you bring in, you don’t really know … there would be a tremendous dropoff,” Slade said of the past few seasons’ rosters. “You bring in the backup guy and you are hoping and praying that he can make some plays.

“Now, I feel like there’s not a lot of dropoff at the edge position. I’m excited about the guys we have.”

One of those is obviously Camac.

“I think he’s going to be a 7-to-10 sack kind of guy,” Slade said. “I really do. I think Melton, with his experience from Ohio State, is going to be big. He can run. I mean, Ohio State doesn’t recruit guys who can’t play, right? They don’t recruit many guys they don’t think have a shot at the NFL, so I think he’s going to bring some versatility at that position because he’s so athletic.

“We have some other guys who can get after the quarterback, too. We’ve got some length, we’ve got some size.”

Camac came in pretty raw at around 245 pounds, but has added 15 pounds of muscle and is a thicker, stronger, more imposing player now.

Slade said putting pressure on quarterbacks is a point of emphasis, and he hopes at least one of his edge rushers will become a difference-maker like some of the great defensive ends in Virginia’s history over the past 40 years.

“This is one of the things we’ve always believed in here in terms of defensive ends,” Slade said. “When the game’s on the line, you need it the most. Those guys have got to make a play. All the great ones here have come in and made plays.

“The Darryl Blackstock’s, the Chris Long’s, the Chris Canty’s, Eli Harold, Patrick Kerney, on and on and on (plus the Chris Slade’s), all these edge guys made plays. So we need to find a guy that can take that type of role and responsibility. We need somebody from this group to step up and be that guy.”

Slade believes Melton, Camac, Mekhi Buchanan and Cazeem Moore (transfer from Elon) will get after it for the duration of camp and beyond, along with 6-8 Billy Koudelka, who he calls the “wild card.”

Then there’s Daniel Rickert, a transfer from Tennessee Tech, who had 7 sacks and 11 tackles-for-loss last season.

“He’s fast as hell, he can run, and I think he’ll help us on third down, too, so I’m excited about all the possibilities.”

It certainly appears that Virginia made some strides on the edge from the transfer portal, landing the kinds of players who can decide a close game. Money well spent.